Thursday, 13 September 2012

Improved through Friendly Rivalry

Hello everyone. Doni is here.

Thank you very much for deeply-appreciated message.
Arigato gozaimasu. And I'm sorry for my terrible at English. I was a student with poor English. As you might know, my best subject was the lunch time at school.

Our school served a lunch for 188 days a school year. It is hard work to menu which is concerned balance of nutrition, calories, like and dislike of children and more.

School dietician should to raise a child to become a healthy eater. It is big challenge for them. Dieticians are thinking about what children liked, what they didn't like, what kindthey liked and what they didn't mind but would rather not eat.

Yes, Dieticians are checking kitchen waste every day, and they peep in to see what children are doing at lunch time. And so dieticians develop a game plan.

OK. Today, I introduce school lunch contest in Japan. It is called Kyushoku Koshien.

(Opening ceremony of the school lunch contest)

This tournament is designed to encourage local production for local consumption and that through the tournament to compete on behalf of the regional dishes are offered in school meals across the country to educate about healthy eating. This year the seventh contest will be held at Tokyo in December.

I usually cosponsor this contest to sneak into the contest room.

Contestants are 12 school (included central kitchen) representative of 6 region of across Japan. Players are School dietician and cooks in pairs.

(Immediately before the final, Contestants check their own uniform)

Criteria of the contestants are as follows;
-Menu what you have previously provided as school meals before the date of the finals.
-That according to the Ministry of Education Reference Intakes for school meals.
-Local products to be a menu that uses local products, taking advantage of the features that.
-It has been used as a teaching tool, live food education
-Nutrients and amount (in the case of elementary school students and volume for middle grade) that is correct
-It is the menu that nurture children love joy regional
-Cook 6 meals servings within 60 minutes
-Cooking and sanitation management process to follow standards of school meals and health management
-The application form attached a picture of the menu.

I think it is so hard to cook 6 meals within 60 minutes.

But they do that. OK, I show you all lunch menu of final contestants in 2011. I bet you will be surprised with them.

1) Iwate

2) Ibaralki

3) Fukushima

4) Gunma

5) Toyama

6) Wakayama

7) Nagano

8) Kagawa

9) Kochi

10) Kagoshima

11) Okinawa

12) Gifu

Please guess who won.

Ah. These menus are special for contest. Please don't believe menu like the above is served every day.

They all look delicious. I wish I was one of the judges so I could taste them all. Veg's choice looks good except for that biscuit thing with what looks like black mustache clippings sprinkled on it. lol (Just a little humour folks). Probably some wonderful nutritional and tasty delicacy I am just not familiar with. No offence meant to the cooks. That said, I like #5 except again I don't know what the black delicacy is in the yellow bowl. I say #10 - it looks good, everything looks more or less familiar and the strawberries won my vote. I'm glad I read the post before I ate my supper or I would have had to go eat again. Great job every team!Bill in Nova Scotia

I would like to eat all of them, especially number 4. Your posts are very interesting Doni, don't apologise for your English, we understand very well and your best subject, school lunch, has served you well to tell the world about your food!

I'm not even going to attempt a guess, as they all look delicious to me!

I smiled when I read your apology for your English, Doni. I was wondering, earlier, if Veg was using an on-line translator for your entries, or if you were actually blogging in English.

English may not have been your favorite subject in school, but I'm having no difficulty at all in understanding what you're saying.

When I travel abroad, I always make it a point to learn at least a few phrases in the language of the country I'm visiting. Mostly the polite phrases like "please" and "thank you" and "Pardon me." But I'm sure a lot of people have thought I was a complete fool when I just stood there uttering my few phrases. I would dearly love to visit Japan, but I would definitely need a translator. If I went into a hotel or a restaurant and just stood there saying, "Please", I doubt that would get me a meal or a room. :)

You, on the other hand, could definitely come to the United States without a translator, and get along quite well.

I am appreciating you and Veg's other guest bloggers so much! I am learning so many things I didn't know about other cultures, not just school lunches, in other countries.

I had wondered how the accident at Fukushima was affecting food in that part of Japan. You mentioned that food imported from other areas is preferred. Which, of course, is more expensive. I would imagine that affects both sides: local food producers probably can't sell their crops for as much, and it is the poorer people that end up eating the possibly contaminated food, since they can't afford to buy the imported food. I'm glad to hear that the school lunches are tested regularly and that locally produced food is still used when possible.

Thank you very much for your message. Arigato gozaimasu.Yes, Maybe I can buy any burger at McDonalds in U.S. ;-)

But, It is difficult to explain about nukes and affected food.I can not express those situation between parents, farmers, and government in English. It means...maybe I did not understand the true substance of this problem yet. Namely, we don't know which information is true or not.

We should support for farmers in Fukushima. I buy anything from them because I'm not young already. But I do not recommend Young family to do so.

Hello, my name is Amy.. greetings from york, south carolina.. USA.. (can u find that 1?.. its a small town)... My favorites are 5, 8, & 10;; those look AWSOME!!!! Good luck Veg;; I read your blog EVERY DAY!!